Easter

After waking up and seeing what the Easter Bunny brought us, we started our beautiful Easter Sunday by going to church for their Easter service. After church we met up with Mike (after he slept a little bit after working the night before) and headed to my parents house for Easter lunch and an egg hunt with Cousin Adella. After a yummy lunch the kids headed out for their Egg Hunt. My brother, Paul, his wife Allison and their daughter, Adella celebrated with us. Afterwards, we headed over to Nanny and Paps to celebrate Easter with them and see what the Easter Bunny left for the kids at Nanny's house. Finally, when we arrived home, Grandma Washington stopped by to bring the kids some Easter goodies. It was a lovely Easter day!! Jesus is good!!

Snow Day! March 2, 2009

The schools were closed and my center was closed due to the snow we received last night. Mike was off work today so he was able to have fun with us today too.

Today we had the most snow we have had all winter! Of course, with the winter that we have had, it does not take much to make more snow than we've already had:). We took our sleds over to Mike's Grandparents (Nanny and Pap) house. They have a great hill and the kids loved sledding down it over and over again. They had such a great time!! The wind was crazy on "Pap's Mountain," so staying out for hours was not really in the cards. Continued to have to go inside to warm up. By the time Lydia decided to join in the fun and sled with Ryan and Emily, the battery on my camera died:). (Ryan was coughing in the last picture).

Happy Holidays!

Our time leading up to Christmas Day is always chocked full of fun family events! If you have not already picked up on this, my family--immediate and extended--is quite important to me! We visited with Nanny and Pap; Jeremy, Destiny, Nathan and Savannah; Aunt Mary Ann; Connie and Earl; Paul, Allison and Adella; My parents; Grandma; Uncle Bill, Vida; Sandra, Tammy, Shane and Brittany. It is always such a special time when we get to see all of them!

On Christmas Eve we went to Nanny and Pap's house. Nanny and Pap are Mike's grandparents. When Mike was younger, he lived with Nanny and Pap for a short time. They are very special to him and over the years have become very special to me as well. Ryan, Lydia and Emily LOVE going to Nanny and Pap's!! All rules are omitted from their lives just by walking in the house:). Nanny and Pap had two children, Connie (Mike's birth mother) and Mary Ann. Mike's brother, Jeremy and his family, came to Nanny and Pap's on Christmas Eve with us. In addition, Connie and her husband Earl and Mary Ann were there for a yummy lunch of Nanny's famous Veggie Soup and some wonderful ham and turkey rolls! Unfortunately, Mike was not able to make it to Nanny and Pap's Christmas Eve while we were there. He had to work during the day that day, but visited with Nanny and Pap Friday (today) afternoon.

On Christmas Eve night we met up with Mike at my parents house. We celebrated Christmas with my parents and my brother and his family. Our big gift to my parents was a picture of all four grandchildren. We had a picture of Ryan, Lydia, Emily and Adella taken professionally. Mom and Dad were very surprised and happy! Ryan, Lydia and Emily walked out of the house with more stuff than they know what to do with:). They are in seventh heaven!

Christmas Day was spent at my parents house with my Mom's family. It was a terrific day of family together time! Ryan, Lydia and Emily were so excited about opening presents and attempting to figure out what they could open next:). It was such a great holiday! Hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas!

Happy Birthday

Well, Ryan has now turned 5 and Lydia and Emily are 3. It is absolutely amazing to me how quickly time goes after you have children and how completely shocking it is when your son tells you “I am 5!” and your daughters, that you just brought home from the hospital, tell you “I am 3 now.” We had our annual backyard cookout for their group birthday party on August 31. Our close family and friends were there—it was a great time! Lydia and Emily dressed in princess dresses that we borrowed from our friend, Frances. They were so excited to wear these dresses and were quite sad to return them, but Uncle Paul, Aunt Allison and Adella gave them princess dresses of their own for their birthday. Ryan actually turned 5 on September 2 and Lydia and Emily while we were at the beach on September 9. Ryan’s teacher allowed Ryan to bring cupcakes to celebrate his birthday at school and his classmates all drew him birthday pictures and made a littlebook out of it. Very neat! Lydia and Emily took cupcakes to preschool on Thursday before we left for the beach on Friday. Was not quite as exciting as Ryan’s experience, but kids don’t really care when they get to eat cupcakes. It was a really great party and a great day! Thank you to everyone that came! You are all very special to our family and we love you very much!